The Dominican Association of Electricity Industries (ADIE) said that the recent increase in blackouts is primarily due to the fact that state owned power distributors are not purchasing the power needed to meet consumer demands. The generators say the generation capacity is sufficient to meet the demand. For example, ADIE says the generators could have supplied 389.76 gigawatts per hour to the system, but the distributors only demanded 360.61 gigawatts per hour, creating a deficit of 29.15 gigawatts per hour. Nevertheless, blackouts of eight to 18 hours are being reported in Greater Santo Domingo.
Manuel Cabral, executive vice president for ADIE, said that the distributors continue to be affected by losses in billing, deficiency of transmission lines, among other causes impeding the companies from being financially sustainable.
“As long as we do not overcome the historical weaknesses that exist in state electricity distribution companies, we will not have the energy supply that we require as a country to continue promoting development,” Cabral warned.
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Diario Libre
El Dia
9 July 2018
